The Sissala East and Sissala West municipal and district assemblies in the Upper West region have placed an indefinite ban on the movement of fertilizer from their jurisdictions.
The ban which takes effect from 6:00 pm to 6:00 am each day is to prevent the smuggling of the product to neighbouring countries such as Burkina Faso.
This was contained in a communique issued at a joint security council meeting held at Tumu, capital of the Sissala East municipality.
Both assemblies have also directed the police and other security agencies to intensify patrols on all approved and unapproved routes and deal swiftly with any individual or group of persons who may want to flout the ban.
The meeting brought together heads of the various security agencies, core staff of the two assemblies, fertilizer dealers, some assemblies as well as traditional authorities.
Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Sisala East, Karim Nanyua who read the communique on behalf of the two assemblies said: “We arrived at these decisions because of our resolve and full commitment to curb all criminal activities especially fertilizer smuggling”.
He explained that farmers in the two Sissala districts have suffered unduly from artificial shortages of the government’s subsidized chemical fertilizer due to some unscrupulous input dealers who smuggle the product for personal profits.
The MCE appealed to civil society organizations operating under the two assemblies as well as traditional authorities to support the fight against the fertilizer smuggling menace in the area.
He further disclosed that officials have been detailed to all warehouses and retail shops under the two municipal/district assemblies to monitor and track the sale of fertilizer to farmers in the areas.
The Sissala West District Chief Executive, Mohammed Bakor, admonished all input dealers to strictly adhere to the ban.
He warned that the leadership of the two assemblies will have no option than to request for the revocation of the licenses of recalcitrant input dealers who defy any of the directives.
“We have suffered enough of the smuggling tag so let us all adhere to the guidelines because we will not spare any dealer who will want to drag our names into disrepute”.
Mohammed Bakor however said the ban will not affect vehicles that are bringing fertilizer from other regions to offload in the two districts.
The Sissala East Municipal Police Commander, DSP Stephen Abanga gave the assurance that the security will up their game to ensure the ban is enforced to the latter.
Meanwhile, some fertilizer dealers are complaining that the ban will impact negatively on their businesses.
Mibadem Tolong Bismarck, one of the fertilizer dealers said “as a distributor, we are allowed to distribute to other districts. So if there is a ban on the movement of fertilizer after 6 pm, how do we distribute to our retailers for them to be able to sell to farmers? The ban should be on movement outside the borders instead of what we are told”.
The two Sissala areas are known for their notoriety in the smuggling of government’s subsidized chemical fertilizer.
Over 50,000 bags of the chemical is reported to have been smuggled from the area last year.
Even though there have been some arrests including political bigwigs, only a few of the suspects have been prosecuted.
Many people blame the situation on political interference.
About 25 long vehicles were intercepted with the chemical since January this year, 2019.
